STERLING -- It's happened to everyone: You can't remember where you left your keys, only to discover after some endless searching that they're still in the car, or you can't find your sunglasses only to later realize they're on top of your head.

Thursday's Ladies Lunch Out, sponsored by Northeastern Junior College and the Logan County Chambers, was all about keeping your mind fresh and sharp.

"Our brain is the manifestation of, like any other any organ in our body, what we put in, how we maintain it," Dr. Wendy Wendover, of Colorado Christian University, said during her presentation on "What is Going on with My Brain?"

She talked about foggy feeling people get sometimes when the brain goes into default mode, which is especially common in areas where there's not high levels of engagement.

"That's because your habits have kicked in enough that you're on auto pilot," Wendover said.

She pointed out that people do get more forgetful as they get older, but it's usually not the important stuff that's forgotten.

"We actually get better at remembering the important stuff, in relationship," Wendover said. "It's called wisdom. There's a distilled wisdom that we have as we age and especially in sizing up people, our intuitive insight, what's called intuitive insight gets very, very good."

She gave some tips for staying mentally healthy, based on studies by Dr. Daniel Amen, Barbara Strauch and Dr. Claudia Kawas.

Her tips included eating right and drinking plenty of water.

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"When you have a good environment, your brain's got water and you've been eating well, you have a better brain," Wendover said.

She recommended eating lots of whole foods and colored foods and staying away from lots of caffeine and alcohol.

"We've got to be careful of our coping mechanisms," Wendover said, referring to drinks that have a lot of caffeine, like Red Bull. "We need to think about ways to get oxygen to our brain. The easiest thing is just to do some deep breathing."

Deep breathing is especially important when you're stressed, she said.

In addition to eating right, you can also take vitamin B-6 and B-12 supplements. She recommended using sublingual supplements that are chelated, meaning they slowly release in your body.

Another tip Wendover shared is to reduce the amount of time you spend watching TV, or passive time, because after about an hour, dopamine is released, which might make you feel good but decreases your productivity.

Aerobic activity and exercise in general also helps the brain. Just like metabolic rate goes down about 10 percent for every decade after the age of 50, brain matter goes down too, by 2 percent -- not the 20 to 30 percent like was previously thought.

"You can do things to contribute to lose more or you can do things to help," Wendover said.

Traumatic brain injuries can be a huge shortcut to not aging well, which is why she told the audience to "do every thing you can to prevent them:" wear a seat belt in the car or a helmet when riding a bike.

She suggested doing mental exercises that put you outside of your comfort zone, like learning a foreign language or how to play an instrument. Wendover recommended visiting Anti-AgingGames.com to find brain stimulation games that can help you stay mentally healthy.

Rest is also important for the brain. To get a good night's sleep, avoid caffeine close to bedtime, don't eat a heavy dinner, don't exercise within three hours of going to sleep and maintain a routine for going to bed and waking up.

Wendover also said it's important not to sweat the small stuff. Focus on the positives of your day by keeping a blessings journal, write down one blessing that you have every day.

She shared a quote she heard on National Public Radio: "Worry never improves your current situation, it only declines your future." She suggested thinking of worry as a reminder to pray.

Wendover pointed out that it's not your memory that gets worse as you get older: it's your retrieval.

"Things slow down a little bit," she said. "But what starts to happen that's way cool, your two hemispheres start to talk to each other more. Your brain really is distilling your wisdom, it's looking in that left hemisphere and that right hemisphere and pulling it together."

"You're selecting what you're intending to and you're distilling your wisdom and you're putting your focus where the need is. You're just not messing around with stuff that's just not that important."

She told the audience to start getting rid of bad habits now.

"You are reaping what you sow. If your habits in your 20s and in your 30s, your habits aren't good habits, regroup your synapses now, take 90 days of focused effort, because it will pay big dividends."

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